Friday, March 9, 2012

How To Give An Awesome Need/Sin Talk

We have the Need & Sin talks coming up the next few weeks in club. Talks always are more effective when they come out of one's own relationship with Christ.

If you want to give a powerful Need or Sin talk, here's what you need to: become disgusted at your own sin and convinced of your personal need for the payment of the cross & the new life of the resurrection. Do that, and you can speak with authenticity and authority.

How Do You Get Convinced?

One way we remind ourselves of our need for Christ is by having a regular time of confession. We prayed this prayer below responsively at church last week and it impacted me deeply. Read it slowly. Pray it sincerely.
A Litany of Penitence

Most holy and merciful FatherWe confess to you and to one another,and to the whole communion of saintsin heaven and on earth,that we have sinned by our own faultin thought, word, and deed;by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit.

Have mercy on us, Lord.

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work,

We confess to you, Lord.

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us,

We confess to you, Lord.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,

Accept our repentance, Lord.

Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us;

Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.

Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,

That we may show forth your glory in the world.

By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,

Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

Amen.

Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church. The above Litany of Penitence is from the Ash Wednesday service found on page 267.